- Adecco Group UK & Ireland’s recruitment consultants appear on Sky Sports in School of Hard Knocks (SOHK) episode airing on Saturday 31 August
- SOHK, a social inclusion charity, collaborates with three of Adecco Group’s biggest companies including Badenoch & Clark, Office Angels and Adecco UK
- Ahead of the Rugby World Cup, School of Hard Knocks uses rugby to tackle the issues surrounding unemployment
Adecco Group, the UK & Ireland’s largest recruitment organisation, has teamed up with the social inclusion charity School of Hard Knocks (SOHK) to equip some of the hardest to reach individuals in society with the skills needed to secure employment.
Working with the charity, consultants from Badenoch & Clark and Office Angels (part of Adecco Group) ran interview workshops at the Group’s City of London headquarters for individuals appearing in the latest Sky Sports series of SOHK.
The latest lesson from SOHK – a unique collision of rugby union, fly-on-the-wall television documentary and disadvantaged young adults – is currently running on Sky Sports and is presented by Will Greenwood, former British Lion and England International, and Scott Quinnell, former British Lion and Wales International. Ahead of the Rugby World Cup, which takes place this September and October in England, the programme uses rugby to help young people, adults and ex-offenders who left school early or have served time to prepare for the world of work.
Consultants from Adecco Group appear in the latest episode, to be aired on Saturday 29 August at 22:30 on Sky Sports and Sky 1, running mock interviews and CV workshops with individuals participating in the 12 week SOHK programme, to help prepare them for the pressures of real-life job seeking.
The day was designed to prepare the individuals for a job fair at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, which appears in the final episode of the current series. Organisations including Arriva Trains, O2 and the Army were present and hunting for their next recruits whilst Adecco UK and Office Angels were on hand to help place people in new jobs.
Commenting on Adecco Group UK & Ireland’s role in the programme, CEO Peter Searle said:
“I am delighted that we were able to partner with the School of Hard Knocks. It is a great charity that plays an incredibly important role in supporting individuals who traditionally find it hard to secure work.
All of us at Adecco Group UK&I care passionately about equipping people with the necessary skills for the workplace and our involvement in this programme is testimony to this. Adecco Group has a long standing commitment to ensuring people from all backgrounds can access work and we work hard with our clients to create a balanced, diverse and inclusive UK workforce”.
Ken Cowen, School of Hard Knocks CEO, said:
“School of Hard Knocks seeks to create an environment for its participants in which there are very clear boundaries and expectations but which is also truly nurturing. We want to help people overcome the barriers that stand between where they are now and where they want to be. Part of this work is helping people understand not only how to nail an interview but more importantly cope with the demands of the workplace. Adecco Group were incredibly helpful to this end, combining real humanity and expertise to the highest degree.”
Jodie Bowles, Senior Manager, Badenoch & Clark, who ran some of the interview workshops said:
“I jumped at the chance to be involved in the School of Hard Knocks programme as I genuinely believed we could provide valuable insight and practical support that would help the guys on their way to find meaningful work, some for the first time in their lives.
It was such an enjoyable and rewarding experience for the whole team at Badenoch & Clark and we are delighted that many of the individuals we met have now gone on to find jobs and are feeling really positive about what the future holds.”